Category Archives: Apartheid

Israel erases Palestine-related contents from school books in J’lem – PNN

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) in Occupied Jerusalem has omitted all texts and pictures that are related to Palestine and the struggle against the occupation from Palestinian school books before its distribution.According to the Hebrew newspaper Iroshalim, the Israeli municipality and the ministry of education deleted Quranic verses, poems and other contents from Palestinian curriculums advocating the Palestinian struggle against the occupation.The IOA recently distributed these books that contained some blank pages and blackened lines to Palestinian schools in the holy city. Among the lines that disappeared from those books are texts talking about the unity of the Muslim nation and the importance of the Aqsa Mosque.The Palestinian map, flag and anthem were also removed from text books. The Israeli municipality justified the measure by claiming that it would not allow the presence of educational books encouraging violence

Source: Israel erases Palestine-related contents from school books in J’lem – PNN

More local Zika cases in Florida as Puerto Rico numbers soar | CIDRAP “So why is Puerto Rico mentioned second and why is this not on nightly US Network or Cable News?

CDC: Zika spikes in Puerto RicoIn its weekly Zika update late yesterday, the CDC documented a spike of Zika cases in the US territories, mostly in Puerto Rico.As of Aug 10, there are now 6,587 Zika cases in US territories, up by 1,039 from last week. But the Associated Press (AP) is reporting even larger numbers: 10,690, according to Puerto Rico’s Health Secretary Ana Rius, MD. Rius said that’s 1,914 new cases this week. A total of 1,035 cases in Puerto Rico involve pregnant women, according to the story.

Source: More local Zika cases in Florida as Puerto Rico numbers soar | CIDRAP

Official from Christian charity tortured by Israel, lawyer says | The Electronic Intifada

Israel detained Mohammad El Halabi in June, interrogated him for more than 50 days and then charged him with diverting up to $50 million to the military wing of Hamas.There are also new indications that Israel’s Shin Bet secret police tortured Halabi to extract the confessions it is relying on.On Monday, Kevin Jenkins, president and CEO of World Vision International, said his organization is “seeking to understand the truth behind the allegations laid against Mohammad El Halabi,” and had suspended operations in Gaza pending investigations.Jenkins added that “we still have not seen any of the evidence.”“World Vision’s cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile,” Jenkins said. He also noted Halabi’s signing authority to spend funds was limited to to just $15,000.“He was afraid they would kill him”Faced with these figures – which severely undermine the credibility of the Israeli accusations – an Israeli government official told Australia’s ABC network that the numbers were irrelevant.“It’s like when you catch a serial killer, the question of whether he killed 50 people or 25 people is not really relevant is it?” Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said.This kind of reckless statement is adding to concerns among observers.“That’s an absolutely ridiculous statement from Emmanuel Nahshon,” Jacob Burns, a researcher at Amnesty International, tweeted. “Serious charges require serious (and fair) trial.”

Source: Official from Christian charity tortured by Israel, lawyer says | The Electronic Intifada

The accumulative effects of racism: it eats away at the essence of your being | Culture | The Guardian

“For every one of me there’s probably a thousand other kids who have anxiety issues or whose experiences have snowballed into a negative adulthood or depression,” she says. Bullying by no means “makes kids tougher and more wanting to succeed. I think often it just crushes people.”The resurgence of xenophobia in Australia troubles Clarke. She sees an “awful synchronicity” between past and present. Her parents left England in the 70s, soon after Enoch Powell’s infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech, which decried black immigrants and predicted that foreign children would overcrowd hospitals and schools. Two decades later, Clarke watched Pauline Hanson’s entrée into politics with a shockingly similar maiden speech, accompanied by a shift in public sentiment around race and immigration. Unsurprisingly, she is not optimistic about Hanson’s return, the rise of One Nation and Islamophobic rhetoric.“I feel as if there is really a global post-colonial situation at the moment,” which especially victimises children, Clarke says. “There are children’s bodies being brutalised or being washed up on beaches. We see brown children being locked up on Nauru and in Villawood Detention Centre. We see things like Don Dale and Indigenous communities having their funding cut.” But Clarke does see hope in Australia’s young people. “I look at my kids’ generation, and their outlook and the way they behave towards each other is different from anything I’ve seen in my lifetime,” she says. The cultural makeup of Australia has changed since Clarke’s childhood, and diversity in books, television, and online media have played a major role. Sharing stories breeds tolerance through understanding, Clarke believes. “It’s a wide big world and that there are lots of different kinds of people in it,” she says. “The best thing [a child] could possibly do is to learn to get along with everybody, because that’s just part of life.”The Hate Race is published by Hachette. Maxine Beneba Clarke will give the opening keynote address at the Melbourne Writers Festival on August 26.

Source: The accumulative effects of racism: it eats away at the essence of your being | Culture | The Guardian

Flatmates of gay Syrian refugee beheaded in Turkey fear they will be next | World news | The Guardian

Three flatmates of a gay Syrian refugee beheaded in a homophobic attack in Turkey last week fear they face a similar fate, after receiving death threats in the days since his murder.Wisam Sankari, a hospital cleaner, went missing on 25 July after going to meet another gay man in Istanbul. His body was found two days later in a nearby area of Istanbul, his head severed and his battered body only identifiable to his friends by his clothing.A week on, three of his flatmates say they fear being murdered in the same fashion after receiving warnings that the man Sankari met on 25 July wants to kill them too.“There have been people in the street and people on the phone, who said: ‘He will get you next,’” said one of Sankari’s friends, a chef who, like his flatmates, asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “There was also a voice message on Facebook.”In an interview with the Guardian in Sankari’s former room, a cramped lodging he shared with five other people, his friends said he had been in fear during the last months of his life after Turkish officials, UN diplomats and charity workers had proved unable to protect him following a series of homophobic attacks.A Greek appeals board said in June that it considers Turkey safe enough for gay Syrians to be deported to as part of the controversial EU-Turkey migration deal. But Sankari’s friends say his experiences show how dangerous the country is for gay refugees, and unstable for refugees in general.They alleged that in the months before his death, Sankari had:Been kidnapped and raped in two separate homophobic attacks.Been mocked and ignored by police officers after he reported one of the incidents.Eventually initiated legal proceedings against his unknown kidnappers after a local NGO helped him find a lawyer.Recorded a video in which he expressed fears that he might soon be killed in a homophobic attack.Briefly moved to another Turkish city in an unsuccessful attempt to find a safer place to live.Been fired from a factory job because of his sexuality.“Do you call this safe?” summarised a second of Sankari’s flatmates, as they listened to their friend’s favourite song and watched a video made in his honour. “We don’t have an organisation to protect us. We want everyone in Europe to understand our situation here for Syrians, especially gays. We’re suffering.”

Source: Flatmates of gay Syrian refugee beheaded in Turkey fear they will be next | World news | The Guardian

David Leyonhjelm, Malcolm Roberts push for Section 18C of Racial Discrimination Act to be removed – Australian Broadcasting Corporation – “Racists just wanna be racist and never have to change, even if they are less humane than those they wish to insult and hold down!”

New One Nation senator-elect Malcolm Roberts also reiterated his similar stance on the race discrimination laws.”It is very important to the country because at the moment a lot of people are afraid to speak up,” he told Insiders. Mr Roberts had told reporters on Friday that Section 18C “needs to be addressed because [it is] curbing free speech”.Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act makes it illegal to carry out an act if: “(a) the act is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people; and (b) the act is done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group”.Section 18D of the Act outlines some exceptions — for example, an offence isn’t illegal if it is a fair and accurate report or comment.

Source: David Leyonhjelm, Malcolm Roberts push for Section 18C of Racial Discrimination Act to be removed – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Christian charity rejects Israeli claim funds went to Hamas | The Electronic Intifada

Shin Bet accusationsThe Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported that Halabi was detained by Israeli forces as he attempted to return to Gaza through the Erez crossing from present-day Israel.According to Haaretz, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency has accused Halabi of funneling “tens of millions of dollars” of World Vision resources to Hamas, “some of it to fund digging military-related tunnels and to purchase weapons.” Citing Shin Bet, The New York Times put the figure at $43 million allegedly funneled to Hamas in just six years.Israel has not explained how such astonishing sums could have gone missing without the charity noticing, especially in Gaza where relatively small sums of development money could have a potentially massive impact.Shin Bet claims that $80,000 contributed by UK donors for needy families and to support civilian projects “were used to build a Hamas position in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, to pay Hamas activists’ salaries and bonuses [for] members who had fought against Israel in the 2014 war,” Haaretz said.Halabi’s attorney Muhammad Mahmoud told the newspaper that his client denies any ties to Hamas and that the fact the investigation took more than 50 days indicates a “problem” with the evidence.Shin Bet has routinely used torture in interrogations of Palestinians.World Vision said in its statement that it has “detailed procedures and control mechanisms in place to ensure that the funds entrusted to us are spent in accordance with applicable legal requirements and in ways that do not fuel conflict but rather contribute to peace.”Halabi’s lawyer told Haaretz that some allegations appeared to be linked to an incident allegedly in which “armed Hamas members came in two commercial vehicles with a machine gun mounted on it and under threat they took what they wanted” from World Vision stores.“We will study the file and its evidence some more but I think this file started off very inflated and the balloon has since been deflated,” the lawyer added.CrackdownIsrael has a history of making baseless allegations that various organizations are tied to Hamas.The accusations regarding World Vision also come months after Amnesty International expressed concern over harassment and intimidation by Israel aimed at hampering and discrediting the work of Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders and nongovernmental organizations.The arrest of Halabi may be an ominous sign of a broader crackdown specifically targeting humanitarian workers in Gaza.“Other information obtained while investigating Halabi has raised suspicions that other humanitarian aid organizations, as well, including United Nations institutions, have exploited their jobs for Hamas,” Haaretz reported, citing Shin Bet sources.It said that details of these cases are under Israeli gag orders.Evangelical ChristiansThe arrest was first reported by the blog ThinkProgress on 1 August.ThinkProgress revealed that a senior Gaza staffer – presumably Halabi – had been held for more than 40 days “without evidence or trial” and that occupation forces had searched World Vision’s offices in East Jerusalem.The charity works closely with UN agencies and the Red Cross and has received funding from the US and European governments.“The detention of a World Vision employee and subsequent raids potentially complicates the historically strong relationship between Israel and evangelical Christians in the United States,” ThinkProgress commented.World Vision Gaza humanitarian aid christian activism Hamas armed resistance Mohammad El Halabi Shin Bet ThinkProgressAli Abunimah’s blog Add new commentYour nameE-mailThe content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.HomepageSubjectComment policyComment *Content limited to 2000 characters, remaining: 2000 Notify me when new comments are posted All comments Replies to my commentBy submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.ALI ABUNIMAH Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.TwitterFacebook What’s really behind Israel’s attack on Christian charity World Vision?Ali Abunimah 5 August 2016 Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only roadAli Abunimah 3 August 2016 Israel temporarily lifts travel ban on BDS co-founder Omar BarghoutiAli Abunimah 2 August 2016 Israel uses Caterpillar equipment in apparent extrajudicial killingAli Abunimah 28 July 2016 Saudi-Israeli courtship heats up with general’s visitAli Abunimah 27 July 2016Main menuFeaturesOpinion and analysisReviewsBlogsSearch form Search

Source: Christian charity rejects Israeli claim funds went to Hamas | The Electronic Intifada

Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

LONDON — Black activists, responding to calls for a nationwide protest against racial injustice, staged demonstrations in London and several other cities across Britain on Friday, in their boldest show of support to date for the emerging Black Lives Matter movement here.Black Lives Matter U.K. had called for a nationwide “shutdown” to protest an array of injustices, including police brutality; racial disparities in arrests, convictions and sentencing; the treatment of immigrants in detention; inadequate mental health services; and a reported increase in hate crimes since Britain’s decision, in a June 23 referendum, to leave the European Union.“We are here because we have no choice,” Wail Qasim, an activist and journalist who took part in a protest near Heathrow Airport, which serves London, wrote on Twitter. “We are here because this is a crisis.”The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged in the United States in 2013, has spread to several countries, including Britain, Canada and France.

Source: Black Lives Matter Activists Stage Protests Across Britain – The New York Times

Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada

 

Eight-year-old Anwar Burqan was playing with her young sister and brothers in al-Ibrahimi Street, near their home in Hebron’s al-Salaima neighborhood on 25 July when their games were interrupted by Israel’s pervasive military occupation.The video above, filmed by local resident Raed Abu Ramileh and published by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, shows some of what happened.According to Anwar’s account, she was riding a bicycle belonging to one of her brothers when an Israeli Border Police combatant ran over, stepped on the bicycle and took it away from her.

Source: Video: Israeli soldier assaults child playing on Jews-only road | The Electronic Intifada